


Downfall of the Guru

by extremelyperturbed



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-20 23:57:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extremelyperturbed/pseuds/extremelyperturbed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack finds himself to be a pariah after Will is found innocent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Downfall of the Guru

Whenever he passed Alana in the hall, she either pointedly looked the other way or glared at him with an expression that reminded him of the Arctic wind, something that cut him to the quick and blasted life-giving heat from his body. When speaking to him, her voice was either a toneless, purposely expressionless monotone or rife with chilly hostility. As for Will, he refused to answer the door when he knocked and returned none of his phone calls. As for Beverly and the rest of the forensic team, they did what he said without complaint but studiously avoided looking at him. 

It wasn't just them. A lot of the students at the Academy no longer looked at him with the same kind of reverence. When his nickname of “guru’ was used, it was more often used to equate him with charismatic con men who exploited their followers’ naivety and trust rather than a figure of wisdom. As angry as it made Jack, he couldn’t really blame them. Especially since he got one of their fellow students tortured and eaten in an off-the-books investigation and a profiler falsely imprisoned for months while he continued working with the actual killer. He hadn’t even been the one to figure out that Hannibal had been the Ripper; it had been Will with the help of the few people willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

His superiors were angry especially since Freddie Lounds and many members of the media had been writing scathing articles mocking him and the agency even though they had been part of the cloud of flies who buzzed about Will Graham proving himself to be an “off-his-rocker psycho killer” at the time of the trial. They had to face complaints not just by the moneyed class who had been victimized by Hannibal’s penchant for sharing his “bounty,” but also high-level politicians who wanted both answers regarding how this had all happened and for the scandal to go away. Jack knew that he was being set up as the fall guy, the scapegoat because these type of things needed someone’s head to roll.

He couldn’t discuss any of this with Bella. The cancer was making it harder and harder for her to breathe and the pain medication she used made it hard for her to be coherent, never mind able to help him deal with the amount of stress he was under. All he could do is try to prevent his medical benefits from being taken away so she wouldn’t have her hospice care ended immediately.

All he was left with was Will’s words to him the last time they had faced each other. “You’re not that much different from Dr. Lecter. He wound me up just to see how I’d go. You saw me as a one-armed bandit that you thought should always give you a payout. I wasn‘t really a person to either of you and I‘m very, very tired of being dehumanized. Goodbye, Mr. Crawford.”

The End

**Author's Note:**

> My rule of thumb is that if you're the boss, you really need to take the responsibility as well as the perks. I think that in Jack's case, expectations are something that work against him because it's usually expected for the leader in most dramas to really be on top of things and/or take care of his people and I think Season One has Jack not meeting either of those expectations. Also future knowledge of knowing that he sends Clarice to meet Hannibal and Clarice ending up eating people with Hannibal also works against him. 
> 
> I think that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment is something people should keep in mind. It's controversial but does raise the issue of when to listen/trust a person of authority and the tendency of people to obey.


End file.
